I think the talks started back in 2002. My significant other (and then wife) and I were at Murphy’s Tavern in Palmer Lake, Colorado and a guy who knew her had said hello. Cindy mentioned then that he had always told her that if she ever opened her own restaurant, he would invest. She told me that day it was something she had dreamed about.

Over the coming months we would talk and think about this dream wondering, “What if?” What if we did it?

On July 12, 2004, we opened our restaurant.

On February 7, 2007, I closed it.

And that journey was as exciting as it was painful. I’ve decided to begin a memoir of this experience. So many have the dream of starting a restaurant. In some ways, I can’t believe we did it. We did. How we did it and some of what happend will be the focus of this exercise. It ultimately came with a cost that far exceeded the money it took.

So many have said I should write a book about the endeavor. I’ve decided on a memoir while I still remember what I can. No doubt I am forgetting more and more about it as time passes. It was one of the most significant challenges in my life. And seldom does a week (used to be a day) go by that I don’t think about it, the business, and the events that transpired.

I am dividing the experience into the major chain of events: The Big Idea/Dream, Doing the Due Diligence, Classified, The Decision, Grand Opening, Doing Business, and The Close. I will let it develop as I go and post a part of this story every ten days or so, intermingled with the other topics I am busy with.

So, what were we thinking when we decided having a restaurant would be a great business to go into? That’s where the memoir shall begin.